by Xaser » Thu Mar 30, 2017 10:54 am
@Arctangent: Thanks there -- you've gotten the intent. The Start page is the "n00b page".
There's been enough focus on this that I figure it's worth emphasizing+justifying a few
very intentional things about the Start page:
- It's informationally sparse, with big images and lots of padding. We want to tell new users what ZDoom is without overwhelming them with text.
- It's image-heavy. Those circle icons draw eyes to each section, and it's a clear visual separator between easily-digestible chunks of information.
- It's "redundant". All information on the Start page can be found elsewhere (e.g. About, News) -- this allows us to keep things simple for new users while still providing detailed descriptions of things on other pages, so nothing's left out. Or, perhaps to better state it: the Start page is a summary of the whole site. Or perhaps an abstract, for the academics in the room.
- It's "trendy". Not everyone's a fan of the "Every Bootstrap Site Ever"-style layout, but it's a modern trend, and this is a modern revamp of a website for a modern Doom port. Believe it or not, people like this kind of stuff. And again, it's just the start page -- we're not ditching the useful details in favor of single-page blathery.
In light of this, even Mars serves a purpose. If it was absent, then the News section creeps into view on large screen sizes, making the thing a lot more informationally dense. Lots of sites achieve this by using a ton of whitespace, but this is more visually interesting, and the Mars image itself may be replaced if a suitable alternative is found.
I'm considering hiding the Mars scroller on mobile devices, though, since the info separation is much less of a concern there. I'd still like something to take that spot though (that isn't just whitespace) so it isn't just a hard cut to News, but frankly, it's the sort of thing likely to be addressed after the initial launch; it's not like we're going to just chuck it up there and say "it's done forever" or anything.
The ultimate irony of this is that pretty much by default, folks who see this forum thread are generally not in the target audience for the Start page, since we already familiar with what ZDoom is. I'm not trying to dismiss anyone's opinion here or anything, but do keep in mind I'm taking this into account when looking at feedback.
tl;dr: The Start page doesn't look pretty just for the sake of looking pretty; it does so to make newcomers
want to read it. Attention spans are fleeting.
@Arctangent: Thanks there -- you've gotten the intent. The Start page is the "n00b page". :P
There's been enough focus on this that I figure it's worth emphasizing+justifying a few [i]very intentional[/i] things about the Start page:
[list][*][b]It's informationally sparse[/b], with big images and lots of padding. We want to tell new users what ZDoom is without overwhelming them with text.
[*][b]It's image-heavy[/b]. Those circle icons draw eyes to each section, and it's a clear visual separator between easily-digestible chunks of information.
[*][b]It's "redundant"[/b]. All information on the Start page can be found elsewhere (e.g. About, News) -- this allows us to keep things simple for new users while still providing detailed descriptions of things on other pages, so nothing's left out. Or, perhaps to better state it: the Start page is a [i]summary[/i] of the whole site. Or perhaps an [i]abstract[/i], for the academics in the room. ;)
[*][b]It's "trendy"[/b]. Not everyone's a fan of the [url=http://adventurega.me/bootstrap/]"Every Bootstrap Site Ever"[/url]-style layout, but it's a modern trend, and this is a modern revamp of a website for a modern Doom port. Believe it or not, people like this kind of stuff. And again, it's [i]just[/i] the start page -- we're not ditching the useful details in favor of single-page blathery. :P[/list]
In light of this, even Mars serves a purpose. If it was absent, then the News section creeps into view on large screen sizes, making the thing a lot more informationally dense. Lots of sites achieve this by using a ton of whitespace, but this is more visually interesting, and the Mars image itself may be replaced if a suitable alternative is found.
I'm considering hiding the Mars scroller on mobile devices, though, since the info separation is much less of a concern there. I'd still like something to take that spot though (that isn't just whitespace) so it isn't just a hard cut to News, but frankly, it's the sort of thing likely to be addressed after the initial launch; it's not like we're going to just chuck it up there and say "it's done forever" or anything. :P
The ultimate irony of this is that pretty much by default, folks who see this forum thread are generally not in the target audience for the Start page, since we already familiar with what ZDoom is. I'm not trying to dismiss anyone's opinion here or anything, but do keep in mind I'm taking this into account when looking at feedback.
tl;dr: The Start page doesn't look pretty just for the sake of looking pretty; it does so to make newcomers [i]want[/i] to read it. Attention spans are fleeting.